Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In December 2017, a syndicate of seven lenders entered into a £350 million GBP syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with Tritax Big Box REIT plc — a real estate investment trust focus on logistics in the United Kingdom that is part of Tritax Group — for refinancing purposes. The RCF carried an initial margin of five years with a two-year extension option and an interest rate based on LIBOR plus a margin of 1.10%. This RCF carried an uncommitted £200 million GBP accordion option. Both extension options were exercised by the borrower, pushing the final maturity to December 10, 2024. Then, in December 2022, via the accordion option, the eight-bank syndicate — including the newly-joined Bank of China (BOC) — up-sized the Tritax Big Box REIT RCF by £100 million GBP to £450 million GBP. The final maturity date remained December 10, 2024 (a maturity period of two years for BOC's contribution). In addition to BOC, the following lenders made up the lending syndicate: Barclays Bank plc, the London Branch of BNP Paribas S.A., the London Branch of JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SMTB), The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (TBS), Santander UK plc, and the London Branch of Wells Fargo Bank N.A.. Record ID#101378 captures BOC's contribution to the up-sized portion. Then, in October 2023, a syndicate of nine banks — including the London Branch of BOC and the London Branch of China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) — signed a £500 million GBP syndicated sustainability-linked RCF with Tritax Big Box REIT plc for refinancing and general corporate purposes. This RCF carried a maturity period of five years with an extension option of two years with lenders' consent and borrower's request and an interest rate based on a floating rate with an opening margin of 120 basis points (bps). This RCF also carried an uncommitted £200 million GBP accordion option. This RCF was unsecured. As a sustainability-linked RCF, this RCF included four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) against which the borrower's performance was measured: new developments with a minimum Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREAM) certification; a reduction in embodied carbon; a minimum biodiversity net gain within the development footprint; and an improvement on Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) ratings across the portfolio. The margin of the RCF's interest rate would ratchet upward and downward depending on the borrower's performance on the KPIs. The proceeds were fully available for the general corporate purposes of the borrower and were used to refinance the existing £450 million GBP RCF that was maturing in December 2024. Record ID#101376 captures BOC London Branch's contribution. Record ID#101377 captures CCB London Branch's contribution.
Staff comments
1. A 6-month LIBOR was assumed. BOC joined the loan in December 2022. The average 6-month GBP LIBOR for December 2022 was 4.29810%. Therefore, the interest rate has been coded as 4.29810% + 1.10% = 5.3981%. 2. The individual contributions of the eight lenders to this £450 million GBP syndicated loan or its £100 million GBP up-sizing alone is unknown. AidData assumes that BOC only contributed to the £100 million GBP up-sizing of the RCF, as the other lenders together had previously provided the entire £350 million GBP value. It is plausible that, when BOC joined the loan, each of the existing lenders syndicated their portions (or merely limited their exposure to the up-sizing) to put BOC on equal or near-equal basis with the other lenders (£56,250,000 GBP each). However, this has not been confirmed. For the time being, AidData has estimated BOC's contribution by assuming that each lender contributed equally (£12,500,000 GBP) to the £100 million GBP up-sizing.